HATFIELD - Police are seeking the public’s help as they probe the theft of a loaded handgun from a police officer’s personal vehicle while he was out on patrol in a cruiser Wednesday night.

Lt. Timothy Paciorek said the officer was near the end of his shift when he realized that the gun, a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson and not his service weapon, had been stolen.

The gun was stolen from the officer’s green pickup truck, parked in the Town Hall parking lot, some time between 3 and 10 p.m. Investigators are still attempting to determine the truck had been left unlocked or forcibly entered, Paciorek said.